1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a control apparatus and controlled apparatus utilized in a system that supports both a command-based model and a user-interface export model, a control system and a computer used in this control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A direct print system based upon a command-based model is known in the art and comprises a digital still camera and a printer. In this system, commands for executing print processing are transmitted from the digital still camera to the printer. The printer is equipped with commands transmitted from the digital still camera (or with a program or data for interpreting commands transmitted from the digital still camera). The printer is controlled based upon the command for print processing transmitted to the printer from the digital still camera.
A direct print system based upon a command-based model is such that if all print processing functions of the printer are caused to be implemented by commands transmitted from the digital still camera (i.e., a control apparatus) to the printer (i.e., a controlled apparatus), then it is required that commands corresponding to all of the print processing functions of the printer be prepared (stored) in the digital still camera in advance. If the printer has a special print processing function other than the print processing functions based upon commands that have been stored in the digital still camera, then the printer cannot have its special function controlled by the command-based model.
Further, the print functions for which processing can be implemented by a printer generally differ depending upon the printer model (type). In order to make it possible for the user of a digital still camera to make full use of print functions that differ from printer to printer, it is required that commands that support the print functions be stored in the digital still camera beforehand for every model (type) of printer. This, however, is unrealistic.
The specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-224676 describes a digital still camera that includes a WWW server/client unit. The WWW server/client unit is connected to a remotely located data processing unit via a radio unit in response to an instruction from an operator and either transmits digital image data and voice data stored in a storage unit to the remotely located data processing unit or receives digital image data and voice data from the remotely located data processing unit and stores this data in the storage unit. It is possible to control the data processing unit (e.g., a printer) in the digital still camera even by the WWW server/client scheme.
The WWW server/client unit scheme, however, involves a system that is more complicated in comparison with a command-based model. For example, transactions are performed a large number of times. As a consequence, even simple print processing such as printing of single frames involves a great deal of processing.
A control system for controlling a controlled apparatus such as a surveillance camera by using an HTML screen at a control apparatus has been proposed (e.g., see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-222318). This system is premised on the fact that the functions of the surveillance camera are grasped by the control apparatus in advance.